Discuss about the Disability Inclusion Initiatives System.
The hospitality industry is a very broad and significant service-based establishment which includes a variety of characteristics and serves the individuals by providing world-class services. This study focuses on one of the sectors of hospitality industries that is hotel industry, it is established in order to provide various services to the tourists, visitors, and individuals who visit them in order to attain various services. The hospitality business is available in almost each and every corner of the nation and is wide and complex in nature. This study concentrates mainly on identifying significant issues and the future prospects of the hotel business with relevance to the Metro Hotel & Apartments, which operates its huge business in Gladstone, Australia. The hotel is currently facing a number of issues, such as, increase in operational costs, lack of technological advancement, issues of location, lack of efficient behavior of its employees, terrorism and violence activities in Australia, minimizing employee and customer satisfaction, etc. A few of these issues are discussed here in this report and future prospects of the business has been identified.
The history of hospitality industry is very old and it has made its mark since decades.As discussed above, the hospitality industry is a vast business, having so many aspects. This business had experienced an enormous growth even in the time of recession. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2006-07), the hospitality business has added 17 percent to the allowance and salary employment in between the year 2006-2007. As it is well-known that the hotel business comes under the category of Free-standing hospitality businesses, that is based on providing facilities basically to the tourists. The hotel business is closely connected to the travel and tourism sector as it provides basic amenities, food, lodging, shelter, comfort, recreation, and convenience to its visitors, and in turn generate profits from it(Barrows, Powers and Reynolds, 2012). This business can be described as a commercial establishment meant to please its customers and assist them in creating happy memories. According to Selwyn, T. (2000), the hospitality industry has various characteristics, such as, it is the trade of interchanging of goods and services, where usually two parties, i.e., the host and the guest share the relationships.The existence of this sector is completely based on the exchange of morals and values and the complete framework of a hotel also exist on that.It also helps in creating and maintaining relationships and turn foes into friends(Bowling, 2017).
In this literature review, the complete focus is given to the hotel business, which falls under the broad spectrum ofthe hospitality industry, special attention tovarious aspects and issues of a hotel are hence discussed taking into consideration the future prospects of the business. The framework of “Metro Hotel & Apartments” is discussed here, which is situated in the city of Gladstone, Australia. This hotel provides a variety of services to its customers and has a leading restaurant and bar facilities in the hotel, including, a swimming pool, in-house laundry services, gym, etc. This hotel aims to provide the essential food and lodging services to its customers and is additionally awarded with the ultimate excellence in providing dine-in services with a view to give satisfactory ambience and better experience to its customers(Chen, 2010).
In one of the studies given by Lashley (Lashley and Morrison (eds.), 2000:10), it is enunciated that in order to understand the provisions and facilities of food, lodgings, and accommodations, one must firstly understand the hospitality services provided in the families.Whereas in accordance with the Fayol(1949), when the hospitality industry is concerned, it is the process where co-ordination, planning, organizational structure, communication, and controlling all play an effective role individually. These all are the basic and significant aspects which need to be looked upon effectively in the hotel business irrespective of its context and scale of business(Dolnicar and Otter, 2003). With respect to the Metro Hotel & Apartments, the owner has to live within the hotel premises and knit the ambience as ‘one whole big family’ as there is a lack of cooperation and collaboration within the staff. On the other hand, the planning of daily work schedule, co-ordination between hotel staff, their chain of command, communication and organizational structure, is getting affected due to the improper behavior of its staff. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher once remarked change is the new constant,which will be discussed here with reference to hotels in the next part of this report to understand the changes in the hotel industry and the issues faced by them. It throws light on issues which the aforementioned hotel is currently experiencing due to the changing global demands. In one or the other way,the issues that the complete hotel industry and at some point its mother ‘the hospitality industry’ are facing currently(Kalargyrou and Volis, 2014).
In recent times, the global community hasexperienced an increase in prejudice towards fellow human beings, there is a drastic increment in racism, dogmatism and insularity. All the above enumerated mindsets harm the hospitality industry and in turn the hotel industry to a very deep extent. The act of violence against non-resident Australians in Australian Continent in the past two decades has impeded the growth of tourism in the country. The owners of hotels, such as, Metro Hotel & Apartments have expressed that the tourists who want to enjoy their vacations peacefully, away from the hustle-bustle, try to avoid situations mentioned above; as the hotel business of Metro Hotel & Apartments have experienced a lot of issues of violence which has now become a topic of concern for the owner of the hotel. Due to increase in terrorism activities,the airports all around the globe have tightened their security, there is a tremendous increase in frisking and regulations, disrupting passenger’s/tourist’s state of mind even before they arrive in a country. Apart from the issue of airports, according to Doxey, G. (1976) and his Irridex ‘‘Irritation’’ Index as the number of tourists increase within a community the populace’s state of mind starts to plunge from positive to negative. As the local people tend to generate hatred towards the incoming tourist flow it has become harder for the hotel owner to retain their positions as good and a safe host(Gazija, 2011).
The hotel industry has always been associated with comfort and respect, be it leisure or business, demands and expectation from the hotels have been overwhelming. Tourists want to have a good experience, thus a good location for the hotel is extremely essential. For hotels, which have a little to change in terms of their location, tend to improve their surroundings by grooming the landscape and renovating the architecture(Subakti, 2012). The ease of access to major tourist attractions or business hubs tends to become a major characteristic when visitors book their home away from home. If the current location of the hotel is such that the major places are far away it should make arrangements such as pick up and drop facilities at convenient locations on time with no or minimal fee counter as an extra facility to its tourists (Olsen and Zhao, 2004). With respect to Metro Hotel & Apartments, it is located at a situation, which is far from the town center and the shopping hub, eateries and banks are located at an inaccessible range. Apart from the location of the hotel, the tourists expect the inside of a hotel to be as friendly as the home. To express the hotel’s caring attitude towards its guests, it is expected to provide the guest with the delicacies they enjoy or will tend to enjoy. Hence, the hotel’s dine-in and restaurant menu needs to be ever evolving, retaining items which the visitors like the most, recirculating what is seasonal and eliminating which is least liked. The hotel staff should be well conversant in English and open to healthy critics if there are any. The Metro Hotel & Apartments employees should try to exceed the expectations as it will improve their business in the long-run(Pizam, 2007).
The hotel industry is growing rapidly and so is the competition within this sector. The cardinal hotel chains, individual startups as well as e-commerce sites are generating immense competition. The Metro Hotel is required to acquire new strategies to attract the same number of guests (Olsen, 2004). New bloomers are thriving in the waters of healthy competition, which in turn is benefiting the consumers. Hotels, such as, Metro Hotel & Apartments should revamp their own restaurant and bar, [email protected], and its décor to suit the need of the new generation of the consumers.
Jeganathan G. S. and Srinivasulu Y. (2014) highlights the approach of hotels trying to shuffle through sustainable development of the three strata namely, society, environment and profit making. Keeping all the arguments aside, like every other business, running a hotel is strenuous and at the end of the day the owner expects his or her pecuniary needs satiated. But with this pace of increasing labor wages, rising energy costs, renovating and construction costs, the profits are getting minimized(Phelan, Mejia and Hertzman, 2013). There is continuous development in technology, which is exerting extra pressure on the owner of the Metro Hotel & Apartments. The issue at hand is achieving the duly qualified work-force at each level of the organization and that to on decent wages. There is an increase in theproduction cost of resources, such as, electricity and consumables which adversely affect the running cost of the hotel. The technological advancements, such as, electronic door locks, internet and environment protection equipment are becoming compulsory for the Metro hotel(Bearne, 2016).
The hotel industry has been prevalent ever since human beings started to build societiesand apartments. In accordance with the primary research, both the tangible and intangible attributes and features of hotel business share equal importance(Slattery, 2002). According to Brotherton and Wood (2000), the hospitality industry is centered on the exchange of goods and services within the hospitality centers and venues, and form a connection with private, domestic, and commercial hospitality. Based on this view, the hotel ‘Metro Hotel & Apartments’ should effectively establish its connection with all the domestic and commercial establishments working in the hospitality industry in order to maintain and build strong relationships which will definitely affect its future business within the country. In one of the articles of Ghai A. and Rizwan S.A. (2013), the tough situations and overload of work pressurize the hotel’s staff and employees and affect their health conditions, so to maintain the productivity of the business and retain its efficient employees, the hotel business must acknowledge and introduce some programs for the betterment of its employees(Roy, 2010). In fact to improve the future prospects of the hotel industry, the owner of the respective hotel should concentrate on employee satisfaction to induce greater guest satisfaction as indicated by Bagri S.C., et al. (2012).
If the hotel industry continues to go down the same path as the aviation industry, soon it will become the part of the hospitality industry, which is only concerned with generating profits keeping the customer satisfaction as far as possible. For the Metro hotel to flourish, it needs to keep upgrading itself with upcoming technologies and give customers the reasons to come back or generate a reference for friends and families. It is rightly said that a little politeness goes a long way and in the world as it is today it is becoming a dire necessity(Choudhary, 2013).For hotel, such as, Metro Hotel & Apartments, they need to distribute their franchise as much as possible, and provide those outlets with staff trained under their supervision, so that they can carry out the duties as expected by the “Metro Hotel & Apartments”name.As Naveed M. (2012) pointed out towards developing a customer relationship database and franchise distribution for improving the future prospectsof hotel business(Brotherton, 1999).
Conclusion
The main aim of this study is to critically review and research the hospitality industry in context with the hotel industry. With the help of several literature and published articles, this study has examined the various issues of the chosen hotel, which are critical and significant to the success of hotel business. Additionally, the future prospects of the business have also been identified, with respect to the today’s mode of business. This literature review is going to help the owners of the Metro Hotel & Apartments in developing, expanding, and maintaining their contribution to the society as well as their business. This review has also concluded that there are several aspects in the hotel industry which needs to be considered, otherwise the business will not be able to maintain its pace in the market.
References
Barrows, C., Powers, T. and Reynolds, D. (2012). Introduction to the Hospitality Industry. 1st ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
Bearne, S. (2016). How technology has transformed the travel industry. The Guardian, [online] p.1. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/feb/29/technology-internet-transformed-travel-industry-airbnb [Accessed 29 Mar. 2017].
Bowling, D. (2017). Restaurant Leaders Summit 2017: save the date. Hospitality Magazine, [online] p.1. Available at: https://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au/food/news/restaurant-leaders-summit-2017-save-the-date [Accessed 29 Mar. 2017].
Brotherton, B. (1999). Towards a definitive view of the nature of hospitality and hospitality management. 1st ed. Manchester, UK: Manchester Metropolitan University, p.9.
Chen, J. (2010). Advances in hospitality and leisure. 1st ed. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Choudhary, V. (2013). Hospitality industry. 1st ed. New Delhi: Centrum Press.
Dolnicar, S. and Otter, T. (2003). Which Hotel attributes Matter? A review of previous and a framework for future research. 1st ed. Sydney: University of Technology, p.23.
Gazija, M. (2011). Importance of staff training in hotel industry Case Study: Hotel Dukagjini. ILIRIA International Review, 1(2).
Kalargyrou, V. and Volis, A. (2014). Disability Inclusion Initiatives in the Hospitality Industry: An Exploratory Study of Industry Leaders. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 13(4), pp.430-454.
Olsen, M. (2004). Literature in strategic management in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 23(5), pp.411-424.
Olsen, M. and Zhao, J. (2004). Industry change, environmental scanning and firm strategy: how is the hospitality industry doing?. Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development, 1(1), pp.13-18.
Phelan, K., Mejia, C. and Hertzman, J. (2013). The Industry Experience Gap: Hospitality Faculty Perceptions of the Importance of Faculty Industry Experience. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 25(3), pp.123-130.
Pizam, A. (2007). Does the tourism/hospitality industry possess the characteristics of a knowledge-based industry?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(4), pp.759-763.
Roy, S. (2010). Competitiveness in Service Sector: A Case of Hotel Industry in India. Global Business Review, 12(1), pp.51-69.
Slattery, P. (2002). Finding the Hospitality Industry. 1st ed. London, UK: Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, p.10.
Subakti, A. (2012). Overview the Seven Stars Rating in Hotel Industry. Binus Business Review, 3(2), p.691.a
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